MONTEREY, California (Sept. 20, 2017) – The No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R. driver duo of brothers Ricky and Jordan Taylor and the racing team owned by their three-time sportscar-champion father Wayne Taylor have had seven weeks to prepare for the biggest race of their lives together – Sunday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship America’s Tire 250 at Laguna Seca Raceway on the outskirts of Monterey, California.

Thanks to their five consecutive victories to start the 2017 campaign, and most recently their solid runner-up finish at the series’ previous round Aug. 6 at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, the Taylor brothers arrive at the iconic, 2.238-mile, 11-turn hillside Laguna Seca road circuit with a hefty 26-point lead in the Prototype-class driver and team standings with only Sunday’s two-hour, 40-minute race and the season-ending 10-hour Petit Le Mans endurance marathon two weeks hence at Road Atlanta left on the schedule.

A finish of seventh place or better Sunday would be enough to clinch both driver and team championships for the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R entry. But while that’s all well and good for the Taylor brothers and the rest of the team, they’ve been preparing for this latest stop on the tour with the same focus on winning the race that they have taken to every track to this point in the season. Anything less than their usual focus on winning, they feel, only opens the door for potential disaster.

The good news is that Laguna Seca has been the scenic backdrop for some of the team’s most successful race weekends over the years, the most notable of which occurred there at the penultimate event of the 2013 season, when Jordan Taylor and then-co-driver Max “The Ax” Angelelli scored a dominating victory in a must-win situation en route to that year’s Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series driver championship. It was their second of a remarkable three wins in a row to close the season – the first coming at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City and the third in the season finale at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Connecticut – which enabled them to eclipse a 19-point deficit in the standings and leapfrog from fourth to first for Angelelli’s second and Taylor’s first career sportscar title.

This weekend, the Taylor brothers know all it would take to clinch their first championship since becoming a full-time driver duo in 2014 is a finish of seventh or better Sunday. They know a run to their seventh podium finish in the season’s first nine events would certainly do the trick and make it taste a little sweeter. But they’d like nothing more than to close the deal on the season-long championship with an outright victory, and they’ve proven to be more than capable of doing just that.

Practice for Sunday’s America’s Tire 250 begins Friday morning while Prototype-class qualifying is set for 3:20 p.m. EDT Saturday with live video at IMSA.tv beginning at 2:20 p.m. The green flag flies at 5:05 p.m. Sunday with live TV coverage set for FS1 beginning at 5 p.m. Live timing and scoring during all on-track sessions is available at IMSA.com and the IMSA smartphone app.

RICKY TAYLOR, driver, No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R:

It’s been seven weeks since your solid runner-up finish at Road America. Your thoughts on getting back to the championship chase at Laguna Seca this weekend and what you expect at that track?

“Yes, ending that streak of poor finishes at Watkins Glen and Mosport was very encouraging. I am looking forward to getting back to racing with some momentum because we had lost that a bit, and I felt like we were in defense mode a bit at Road America just trying to have a clean race. Now, that is all behind us. Road America was great and we can attack this weekend in Laguna.”

You and Jordan can clinch the championship this weekend with a seventh-place finish or better at Laguna Seca. How does that affect your mindset and the team’s approach for this race, knowing you almost always say you’re racing to win?

“The goal for me personally is to get through Laguna in a position to where we only need to do the minimum at Petit (Le Mans, the season finale at Road Atlanta). That way, we can go full attack and try to win Petit Le Mans and the championship together. However, we will be maximizing this weekend as much as possible and going for a win like usual. I think if we are too defensive, we are not focused on doing all of the things that have put us in this position. I still believe we can win Laguna and Petit and there is no reason why, just because we have a cushion, that we shouldn’t prepare in such a way. We just have to avoid overly dangerous situations and not put ourselves in unnecessary risk.”

You finished your Pirelli World Challenge SprintX season since you last raced at Road America. Your thoughts on that, what it meant to you, was it a worthwhile experience, and would you go back and do it again?

“I had a great time racing in Sprint X. GT3 racing is a lot of fun as a driver. But, racing in prototypes is really what I love and is my main focus at the moment.”

Your thoughts about Laguna Seca, your feelings about the track, what we can expect this weekend, how it suits your car, etc.?

“Laguna should suit us quite well. I think the LMP2-spec cars have the upper hand with their additional downforce. But I think, with the way the traffic flows and the strategy, we should be in the fight for a win.”

JORDAN TAYLOR, driver, No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R:

It’s been seven weeks since your solid runner-up finish at Road America. Your thoughts on getting back to the championship chase at Laguna Seca this weekend and what you expect at that track?

“Laguna has been a good track for us, historically, but this year we go back with the Cadillac for the first time. The last few years we’ve had one of the fastest cars, so I have confidence in the team that we understand what it takes to make a car quick around there. I’ve always enjoyed driving there, so I’m looking forward to getting back.”

You and Ricky can clinch the championship this weekend with a seventh-place finish or better at Laguna Seca. How does that affect your mindset and the team’s approach for this race, knowing you almost always say you’re racing to win?

“I think we go into this weekend the same as we have been all year. If we start getting caught up trying to be safe and conservative, that’s when you make mistakes. The way we’ve been approaching these weekends has been working, so there is no reason to change that at this point. I do believe that when you aren’t fully focused on pushing and getting the most out of it, it’s easier to make mistakes. When you are pushing the hardest and going for a win, you are forced to be at your most focused, so that’s what we’ll do. Our guys have been doing this long enough, they’ve all won races and championships, so there is no reason to try and reinvent the wheel.”

You won the Pirelli World Challenge SprintX championship since you last raced at Road America. Your thoughts on that, what it meant to you, was it a worthwhile experience, and would you go back and do it again?

“The SprintX Championship was a bit odd, how it was a championship inside a championship. For me, I was obviously happy to win it because it was the only part I was involved with over there. There were a lot of good drivers and teams that we were up against. I have always enjoyed being involved with Cadillac Racing, and it was a great experience doing it all with Michael Cooper as my teammate.”

Your thoughts about Laguna Seca, your feelings about the track, what we can expect this weekend, how it suits your car, etc.?

“Laguna has always been a fun track. It’s got its unique challenges and has a lot of history. It’ll be interesting to see where all the cars stack up during the weekend. It’s another race where we’ll have multiple pit stops and strategy calls, so that’s always a part of the race that suits our team.”

WAYNE TAYLOR, owner, No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R:

Your overall thoughts as we head to Laguna Seca for Sunday’s America’s Tire 250?

“Winning the championship is always the priority, but winning races and collecting podium finishes is always the focus and the way to win a championship. So we will go about our business like we do every weekend at Laguna, which has always been a fairly good track for us. We all love going out there to race and to spend some time. It’s a big Konica Minolta-supported event and I think we have a good car in our Cadillac DPi-V.R that should give them something to feel good about. I’m not sure whether we’ll have an outright winning car for that track this weekend, but we’ll certainly have a car to do what’s important to us right now with the championship at stake. It seems like such a long time since we last raced, so it’ll be good to get back out there. The guys have had plenty of time to prepare for what we need to do this weekend, so we’ll see. Again, we may not be fastest car there, but we know we have a car and a team and drivers who can win, but we still have to finish. We’ll go to the race on the basis of trying to win the race, like we do each and every weekend.”